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Tom Cruise continues to revive cinema with polished, innovative blockbusters. This review, should you choose to accept it, highlights the 62-year-old actor-producer’s most death-defying stunt to date.

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is director Christopher McQuarrie’s fourth installment of the franchise, and it’s a more than worthy end to Ethan Hunt’s story. The film is filled to the brim with heart-pounding action sequences, tear-jerking moments and slick callbacks to the previous “Mission: Impossible” entries.

“The Final Reckoning” is a continuation of 2023’s “Dead Reckoning Part One.” Ethan (Cruise) and the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) struggle against Gabriel (Esai Morales), the human acting on behalf of the Entity — a destructive, sentient form of artificial intelligence. After a battle on the Orient Express, “Dead Reckoning” ends with Ethan’s new goal: to find the Sevastopol — a sunken Russian submarine — and use the key to destroy the Entity.

“The Final Reckoning” picks up where the story left off. After Ethan and his colleague, Grace (Hayley Atwell), are captured, they learn the submarine wreckage holds the “Podkova” device (the “Rabbit’s Foot” from “Mission: Impossible III”), which has the power to destroy or control the Entity. Gabriel seeks control, while Ethan plans to use teammate Luther Stickell’s (Ving Rhames) “poison pill” malware to destroy the Entity before it takes over the world’s nuclear weapon arsenal.

The plot is relatively straightforward, but Ethan’s journey is not. We’ve seen Cruise climb the tallest building in the world, hang onto the side of a cargo plane in flight and skydive from a motorcycle that he rode off a cliff, but nothing compares to the utter insanity captured in “The Final Reckoning.”

The appetizer to the main stunt occurs when Ethan locates the Sevastopol. This underwater sequence features an extraordinary set piece, including a gigantic water tank and rotating apparatus. The sunken Sevastopol is frozen in time, its frosted-over crew members preserved with panicked facial expressions. During Ethan’s escape, he maneuvers around a half-dozen torpedoes (possibly nuclear) that are freely moving with the sloshing water.

Cruise performed the scene wearing a suit that, when wet, added 125 pounds to his body weight, while reflecting lights limited his eyesight. The sequence makes the underwater vault scene from “Rogue Nation” seem like a kiddie pool.

After watching that jaw-dropping segment, I couldn’t believe the plane stunt — pictured on the film’s IMAX poster — was still yet to occur. Gabriel lures Ethan to his location, resulting in a dogfight between the two biplanes.

While miraculously piloting with his legs, Ethan leaps from his plane, latching onto Gabriel’s midair. Cruise climbs around the biplane like it’s a jungle gym. At 8,000 feet in the air, Cruise faced winds up to 145 miles per hour. He was forced to communicate with McQuarrie via hand signals. The stunt, deemed impossible by professional wing walkers and too dangerous to even attempt, should go down as one of the greatest performative feats in the history of cinema.

Sophia Burke | Digital Design Director

This stunt, and its impact on a franchise decades in the making, encapsulates the heart and soul of “Mission: Impossible.” The inspiration for the scene began when Cruise was young. He first got the idea from watching old black-and-white footage of wing walkers as a child, he said on “The Tonight Show.” His stunt experiences on both “Top Gun” films and “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” enhanced his abilities.

The logistics of the stunt and finalizing the technological aspects took several years, with an additional year and a half of actual practice. It’s taken 29 years to reach this point, with the original “Mission: Impossible” being released in 1996. With flashbacks to previous installments, McQuarrie reminds the audience of the series’ long history.

These flashbacks are the main source of criticism for “The Final Reckoning.” Admittedly, the film is overloaded with recaps at times, yearning to tie the franchise in a neat bow. While it allows for fleshed-out action sequences, it certainly leaves a wanting for character development, specifically with Briggs (Shea Whigham) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis).

The partners first appear in “Dead Reckoning,” when they are tasked with arresting Ethan. In “Final Reckoning,” Degas becomes Ethan’s ally for no real reason other than trusting him. Revelations about Briggs’ character are dropped on the audience and then barely acknowledged again.

While it’s understandable that many have complaints about the sheer number of flashbacks, they serve a purpose. “The Final Reckoning” works great as a standalone project because the lengthy exposition makes the film accessible, even for people who aren’t familiar with the franchise.

Also, being reminded of Ethan’s extensive accomplishments ramps up the intensity. “The Final Reckoning” does arguably the best job in the series of conveying the weight of the situation. The fate of the world is really on the line, and Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey’s suspenseful score doesn’t let you forget that.

Despite some rushed character arcs, “Final Reckoning” presented us with some great ones to wrap up the franchise. Luther Stickell — a fan favorite who’s been with us since 1996 — said his final goodbye in a heroic sacrifice of his own life. A big surprise was the reappearance of William Donloe (Rolf Saxon), who was exiled in the first film.

Formerly a laughable character, William is responsible for relaying the Sevastopol’s coordinates, something that Ethan and the IMF were unable to discover by themselves. Grace and Paris (Pom Klementieff) also show growth, settling into their roles with the IMF, while Benji (Simon Pegg), often portrayed as nerdy, pulls through when the team needs him most.

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is a thrilling ride and undoubtedly one of the best entries in the franchise. And somehow, Cruise is only becoming better as an actor.
Trust Ethan one last time, it’s worth it.

Published on May 31, 2025 at 2:47 pm